Anamik Saha of Goldsmith’s University in London tipped me off about a new online journal called Re-public. The journal is currently featuring a fascinating series on the future of “the commons” and intellectual property in a connected world. The series includes contributions from Richard Stallman, Dougalss Rushkoff, and Michael Bauwens. I’m looking forward to reading and responding to these articles over the next few days.

Re-public is also seeking contributions for its upcoming special issue entitled “Wiki politics”. So if you’re doing some research or thinking in this area, you may want to check it out. Here’s an excerpt from their call for papers:

The democratic promise of the Internet has remained partly unfulfilled. It is still doubtful how the use of new collaborative tools (wikis, blogs,forums, mailing lists, podcasting, and videos) can transform the ways politics are practiced and how the increasing prospects for larger political participation can result to the emergence of active citizens. Perhaps, it is essential to start from the concrete: Wiki politics is a concept that encompasses existing practices which instantly give birth to new democratic forms. They produce a particular form of political participation -horizontal and equitable- which operates on the basis of the principles of decentralisation and openness. The issue aims to explore the openings that the concept of the ‘wiki politics’ presents for democratic theory and practice.

Possible topics include:

• Horizontal forms of politics
• Self-organizing networks
• Collective intelligence
• Wikis, new identities, new collectivities
• Wikis and political campaigns
• Wikifying knowledge
• Technologies of cooperation (wikis, blogs, forums, mailing lists, podcasting, and videos)

The deadline for articles is March 10, 2007. You can check out their website for more information.